Preparing for an EMP strike

When
The Grid Goes Down...

Let’s
just say that the unthinkable becomes the real and happening. Let’s
take this article and go over it. This will be a segment in
three parts, the next ones being immediate actions taken at work and
at home. I’m hitting on traveling first, as there are so many
vacationers jaunting around happily over the landscape. All
kidding aside, traffic is congested during the summer, extending
traveling time on the commutes. Let’s game the scenario, and
here it is.

Here’s
the scenario:

You’re
cruising down the highway in your 2013 four-door sedan, having just
dropped the kids off twenty minutes ago to the swim club. Now
you’re on the open highway with a heavy traffic flow…about 5
miles from the edge of town and 7 miles from work. You’re
listening to the radio, when suddenly it crackles and goes dead,
along with your engine. You look around and pumping the brakes
manage to slow down and then drive off the road onto the shoulder,
just feet away from the back bumper of another vehicle.

The
vehicle comes to a stop, and you try the ignition again. You
look at your watch, a Casio G-Shock, to find there is no display.
You reach for your cell phone. Nothing. It’s dead.
There are perhaps a dozen cars around you…half to your front and
half to your rear. All of them have stopped, and most of the
drivers have gotten out. You hear the sound of an engine, and
looking up, see a ’58 Ford pickup truck weaving in and out of the
stalled traffic, moving toward your rear, away from town. The
book “One Second After” has just played out in real life.
The United States has been attacked by an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse)
weapon. You’re 15 miles from home, and the “S” has hit
the fan.

On
Friday 7/29/17, North Korea just successfully tested an ICBM
(Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and experts from four different
countries including the U.S. have determined that they have the
capability of striking the U.S. anywhere. That means the
optimal point for an EMP strike (dead center of the continental U.S.,
at 300 km above ground) is not only their prime target but also
attainable.

15
Tips to Get Safely Home Following an EMP

Back
to our scenario. Most will be clueless and unprepared.
Let’s do it up, down and dirty with the steps that you should take
if you are “Citizen X” outlined in the scenario:

1.
Have a plan already
in place: That
means to formulate one right now, if you haven’t already done so.

2.
If there are a lot of people around, such as in the scenario, then
immediately grab your gear and
get out of there. What
gear, you may ask? We’ve “gamed” much of this to the
point of nausea, but let’s list out those essentials:

“Go/Bug
Out Bag”: This
guy already needs to be packed and ready, in that vehicle that will
become a 3,000-lb. paperweight. Three days’ supply of ready-to-eat
food,
one day’s worth of water and the means to filter more. Compass,
flashlight, knife,
first aid kit, poncho,
jacket/sweatshirt, extra
socks,
map, light
sleeping bag,
fire starting material, small
fishing kit (hooks,
line, bobber), sewing kit, MSW (Minor Surgical Wound) kit, extra cash
($20 denominations and smaller), ground
pad,
extra clothing (hat, OG bandana, etc.), and ammo. An EMP may be
followed by radiological and nuclear consequences. Having an NBC
gas mask and anti-radiation
pills in
your vehicle could be a lifesaver.

Weapon: Please
don’t feed me “legal information,” or “I can’t do that in
my state.” These are “sink or swim” rules. If you don’t
have a weapon now, you may not have one later. If you don’t
have the fortitude to take that weapon and be ready to use it when
the time comes, then you probably won’t survive this or be able to
help your family. One
rifle, one pistol, with ammo for each.

Grab
that bag and put it on, securing your weapons.
Then secure the vehicle, closing the windows and locking it up.
If nobody is around, throw it into neutral and push it off the road.
Camouflage it with branches and leaves…taking care not to cut them
from the immediate area that you stash it. Most likely it’ll
be “violated,” so now is the time to take the stuff you need and
get it out. If the scenario above applies, just secure the vehicle
and get out of there.

3.
Traveling: Do
not walk on the roads. Skirt the road with about 50 meters (that’s
about 150 feet) between you and the edge of the road. Stay away
from people unless you know them
and trust them…both
qualities are emboldened.

4.
For metro people:
If you are out in the suburbs or open road, and you must return to
the city? It may be better for you and your family to arrange for
a rallying
point outside
of the city. If that isn’t possible, then you should exercise
extreme caution. Allow the nearest family member to secure the
home and then wait for you. Travel when it’s dark to be on
the safe side. Your visibility is cut down, and so is the
visibility of those who may be hunting
you.

5.
Long distance to go? Forage along the way.
Refill your canteens/water bottles whenever you’re able, and take
note of any freestanding water supplies or “blue” features
(that’s the color of water on a military map) for use in the
future. DON’T MARK YOUR MAP! If someone gets a hold of
it, you do not want them to be able to find your home. You must
commit the route to memory and adjust your steps accordingly.

6.
Dealing with the Stress of the Event: The
power is not coming back on…ever…and
it really has begun…the
Day After Doomsday is here.
Take a deep breath and concentrate on your training, your
preparations. If you don’t have any, then this piece is a
wake-up call to get moving! The best way to do it is
immediately accepting what has happened without dwelling on it.
Concentrate on the tasks at hand: navigating home, scouting what is
in between, and foraging for anything you need. You have a job
to do! Reconnaissance! We’ll go over that now.

Reconnaissance:
You must see on the ground what is in between you and the happy
Hallmark home you’re returning to. You should take note of any
places that hold medical supplies, food, or anything you may need for
yourself or your family. You should take note of possible
refuge sites to hide if you and the family hightail it out of the
home instead of having a “Walton Family Homecoming.” You
must take note of water features, danger locations (cliffs or
impassable terrain features), as well as dangerous individuals.
Yes, the ones who were jerks before all of this? Wait until you
see how they’ll be now, with no controls exercised over them.

7.
The best advice I can give:
Travel at night. This may be impossible for several reasons.
Firstly, if it’s an all-out nuke attack, there may be the problem
of radiation for you, in which case you’ll have to either reach
home immediately or seek shelter immediately to remain in place for
several weeks. Secondly, you may have other family members that
need to be attended to and cannot wait for a long time. The
kids in the scenario are a prime example. If it is an EMP only,
there will be a “quiet period” of about 6 to 12 hours before
everything breaks loose and the sequel to the movie “The Road”
begins in real life. Darkness is the best time to travel.
It hides you and helps you to cover your tracks until the morning
light.

8.The
rest of the family:
They must KNOW THE OVERALL PLAN AND HAVE A PLAN OF THEIR OWN TO
FOLLOW UNTIL YOU GET THEM OR UNTIL THEY REACH HOME. This is all going
to take some preparation on your part and remember the saying: An
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don’t put it
off!

9.
Avoid people, families, and groups of people. Your
goal when traveling is to be invisible. I wrote some articles
onhow
to hunt and
how to avoid
the manhunt.
You may want to refresh yourself on those points, and follow a few
basic rules I keep in my own mind and heart:

When
a disaster occurs, everyone is your “friend” even when they are
not

There
is no interest but self-interest outside of you and your immediate
family

Whatever
you need and have, they also need and want

They
will kill you for the barest of essentials of what you’re carrying

Don’t
talk to anyone: don’t exchange information, pleasantries, and do
not tell anyone anything about yourself, your family, your general
destination, or your home…it can be used against you later…and
it will be.

10.
Coming home:
Don’t walk right on in. Use a roundabout route, and go to a spot
where you can watch your house for at least half an hour or so before
making your “triumphant return.” The S has hit the fan, and
this is not the return of the Prodigal…you’re just going to
tiptoe in. But before you tiptoe through the tulips and the
window, keep in mind that Tiny Tim and his gang of marauders may have
done it before you. That is why you want to watch the house
closely. Best Advice I can give: Have your kids/spouse put up a
long-distance-visible sign/signal so that you know everything is
either OK or that you’ll have to come in and rescue the family.
For example, if the birdhouse is still on the corner of the porch,
then all is well. If the birdhouse is gone, or if it’s
sitting on top of the post that holds the mailbox…well, time to
play CQB (that’s Close Quarters Battle) and clear the house of the
rats.

11.
Never underestimate anyone’s ability to take your family members
hostage: That
goes for the “friendly neighbors,” most of all…the biggest rats
on the block. If that happens, guess what? You’re now the HRT
(that’s Hostage Rescue Team), or you better have a couple of guys
such as this in your survival group/pod/neighborhood unit. The
hardest guy or gal in the world will “cave” when their son or
daughter is being held at gunpoint by some goon.

12.
You’re home…Now, it’s time to fight! That’s
right! Just when you thought it would be cozy and
comfortable…just you and the family and your happy supplies…here
comes a whole bagful of “Gummi Bears” down the block…only these
bears are armed with baseball bats, zip guns, chains, and crowbars.
Armed also with about a week of BO (that’s Body Odor), all
twelve of them combined still have an IQ of 50, tops…and here they
are, at your door. They don’t want Halloween candy, by the
way. You just walked twenty miles.
Say, remember that article I wrote about usingginseng,
and drinking coffee to
help you keep alert and awake? I hope that one comes to mind
because it’s about to become a “festival” at your house.
We’re going to cover more on this in the next segment.

13.
Obtain that “second set” of electronic equipment.
Oh yeah, the one JJ continuously warns about! Well, now that
all your electronics that were exposed are junk, I hope you made
some Faraday
cages and
stashed an extra one of those radios…or even several, for those of
you who thought long-term. You need to find out what’s going
on. Ham radios may help if you shielded them. So may CB’s
and satellite phones.

14.
Arm the whole family: by
the time you reach home, every family member either accompanying you
(small children and toddlers excepted) should be armed. Time
to really see
how tight and full of solidarity you are as a real family
unit…one that must fight in order to survive.

15.
Exit stage left: You
may just find that the homecoming isn’t; that is, you must write it
off as a loss and get out of there…it’s either destroyed and
burning or occupied by the marauders.
Unless you have the skills and the ability to deal with all of them,
it is better to retreat and stay alive. You need a plan in
place in order to make this work.

We’ve
covered a lot of information here. This is all designed to
stimulate those creative thought processes. The thinking alone
is not enough: you must formulate a plan and then implement it.
A plan without action is of no use. A plan executed too late is
a tragedy: a funeral dirge getting ready to play. Don’t be
too late to formulate your plan for you and your family. If the
lights go out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the party’s
over…and the party may be one that never comes to an end.
Fight that good fight each and every day! JJ out!

1 comment:

There's some right-wing wishing for the time when they are allowed to murder their neighbors with impunity. Boy oh boy! Won't be great to mow down the paperboy and his mother and laugh at their suffering? And this is why idiots march in Charlottesville. Same sort of dream world.